A large variety of devices are known and used today to aid shoppers to transport selected items to the cashier in shops and/or supermarkets.
One example of said devices are conventional carts, such as those disclosed by ES2225564 for example, which allow holding a large number of products and which are logically provided with wheels so that the shoppers can push the carts rather comfortably.
However, such carts have serious drawbacks. The considerable size of the carts must be pointed out among said drawbacks because, even though it is their greatest attribute as it allows holding products that are bulky and in large quantities, it is also their greatest drawback since once loaded, these products greatly complicate their maneuverability and handling. Said maneuverability is particularly compromised when making turns in supermarket aisles or when avoiding other carts, shelves, etc., since the design thereof makes overcoming the inertia by simply pulling on the handgrip located on the higher and narrower side difficult.
Said lack of maneuverability sometimes causes shoppers to stop using the handle designed for such purpose to turn the cart and to grip one of the larger lateral sides of the cart however they can to turn the cart either by pulling the cart if shoppers grip the side of the cart towards where they intend to turn the cart or by pushing the cart if shoppers grip the opposite side of the cart, which often tends to cause faulty control due to the difficulty of said gripping.
To facilitate said gripping, carts such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,600,763 are known where the cart is provided with a perimetral handle. Nevertheless, such carts still have serious drawbacks, such as the lack of symmetry or the fact that not all the wheels of the cart are free wheels or directional wheels. Furthermore, the existence of a lower perimetral platform limiting the useful space for the shopper's feet tends to be a problem and cause impacts if said cart is gripped on one of the sides that is not the usual side.
Smaller baskets appeared on the market a few years ago in order to overcome said drawbacks. Said baskets were initially intended for small shops or for large retail establishments when the shopper wanted to buy a few items, so the shopper had to carry or transport the items holding the baskets up. Then, said baskets were developed such that they allowed holding more items while at the same time facilitate their transport, so wheels or rolling elements were incorporated on the base thereof which allowed carrying them in a manner parallel to the floor or in a manner inclined with respect to the floor, as can be seen in ES2270676 or ES2288138 belonging to the same applicant as the present invention or in ES1016651U or ES1027023U, respectively.
However, even though said baskets improve maneuverability due to their reduced size and capacity, they also have drawbacks typical of their morphology, such as the lower holding capacity, the need to bend down for putting in or picking up the items held therein, among others.
Furthermore, such baskets can have drawbacks typical of the way they are stored, since stacking them in height can entail a problem for elderly shoppers or shoppers with any type of physical limitation.
Finally, to solve some of the mentioned problems, solutions such as that proposed in EP1403164 and/or US2009174161 have appeared on the market, where two baskets, an upper basket and another lower basket, are incorporated to a rigid vertical structure or frame in a non-permanent manner, thus improving the total capacity and part of the maneuverability problem, but not the storage problem in the non-operating phase, where it is necessary to remove said baskets to ensure that they do not take up too much space when fitted with one another. Furthermore, the fact that the frame and the baskets are independent can cause stability problems or can even cause the baskets to fall if they are not correctly positioned on said frame. On the other hand, the basket located in the lower portion still has the same accessibility problems.
Based on the foregoing, it would be desirable to have a device for transporting items inside shops and/or supermarkets or self-service stores which prevents the mentioned drawbacks of the prior art. Specifically, a device which is comfortable and can be easily controlled and handled from any position of its perimeter without forsaking good capacity, which does not require great physical efforts by the shopper for the transport thereof and which maintains a good horizontal storage capacity in the retail establishment, taking up the smallest possible space when they are fitted to one another, is desirable.